A groom who kicked and punched his new wife in a hotel bridal suite on their wedding night avoided jail today, Belfast Live reports.

Details of the attack - which also including the groom putting his hands around his wife Melissa’s throat leaving her “very scared” - emerged at Antrim Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The court heard it should have been the best day of their lives but instead joiner Kevin Joseph McGrath, 28, whose address was given as Ardnaskea Drive, Coalisland, Co Tyrone, but who had been living in Desertmartin in Co Derry, went on a bender starting boozing at 10 that morning.

He was so drunk his barrister claimed he couldn’t remember anything after the wedding meal ended at 8pm.

The court heard the night quickly went downhill with McGrath attacking his new wife in the bridal suite. Police were called to the White River House Hotel in Toomebridge on Sunday October 2 this year.

His wife fled her room and alerted staff and had to be taken to hospital for treatment to her injuries, the details of which were not outlined to the court.

Staff then confronted McGrath who was “kicked out” and he made his way home.

The court heard that since been married two months ago the defendant has not seen his wife or his daughter.

McGrath had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm on his wife and was back in court for sentencing on Tuesday.

He sat quietly in the court as a prosecutor said police attended the hotel at 5am after receiving a report a bride had been assaulted by her new husband in the bridal suite.

The new bride told police she had been “scolding” her husband for being sick on the floor and as he lay on the bed he put his hands on her throat, “hurting her” and causing her to be feel “very scared”.

She was taken to hospital and discharged and told police her husband had kicked and punched her several times and then he went to sleep.

Photos of her injuries were shown to District Judge Alan White.

The prosecutor said McGrath told police he had no memory of events after 8pm on his wedding day and could not account for the injuries to his new wife.

Defence barrister Michael Ward said it was a “very disturbing set of circumstances” and said the couple had been in a relationship for four years and were engaged in 2013 and had a young daughter together.

He said what was “supposed to be a very special day for them” and their families ended in disaster because McGrath consumed too much alcohol.

Mr Ward said the defendant was stressed out in the run up to the wedding and there were incidents on the wedding day like the Best Man “taking himself elsewhere” and issues about the music being played by the DJ which caused “some frustration”.

He said McGrath was drinking from “10am right through” and added: “He can’t remember anything after the meal.”

Mr Ward said his client was lying in bed when hotel staff woke him up and told him to get out saying his wife claimed she had been assaulted.

“After being kicked out he doesn’t know how he got to Desertmartin,” added the barrister.

He said McGrath’s wife said her husband was “bad-tempered” and “stubborn” but she never would have described him as violent before the flare-up on what should have been the “best day of their lives”.

Mr Ward said McGrath wished to unreservedly apologise to his wife and added that since the incident he has had no contact with her and he has not seen his daughter either.

“He has lost everything as a result of what happened,” he told the court.

He said the joiner worked had saved up £7,000 to pay for the wedding and “really, through excess alcohol consumption, he has thrown everything in his life away”.

Mr Ward said McGrath made full admissions and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity in court.

He said there was no explanation for the violence as McGrath had no history of such offending.

District Judge White said he had to give credit for the guilty plea and a clear record but said it was an “extremely serious assault”.

He said courts have to take domestic violence particularly seriously and added the incident was “a very sad commentary on the effects of alcohol when taken to excess especially on what is meant to be the best day of your life”.

The judge said he was reluctant to send first time offenders to prison saying that would not help McGrath in potentially re-building his relationship with his wife.

Instead, he put McGrath on Probation for two years to take part in the Building Better Relationships programme and also ordered him to carry out 100 hours of Community Service.

He also ordered the defendant to pay £300 compensation to his wife and warned McGrath the sentence was “a direct alternative to immediate custody”.

The judge added: “Most people, no matter how badly they behave, deserve one chance in life”.